Been in Kampot Cambodia for a week and a day, enjoying it even though booking rooms has been difficult. The Tet (Vietnamese), and Lunar New Year (Chinese) seems to be a reason to take a holiday no matter where you're from in South East Asia. Everything seems booked (in my price range) and even the hostel beds are pretty booked (I'm not sharing a dormitory and bathroom with anyone!).  But I've managed to have a place to stay until the 10th, the end of Lunar New Year.

My first place in Kampot was the Monkey Republic Guesthouse and hostel, guessing 30 beds in shared dorms, and 8-10 budget rooms with no A/C, TV, or hot water, but clean and comfortable. Great restaurant, bar, lovely grounds, great vibe and just far enough out of town to be quiet and chill. Would have booked longer there, but others beat me to it.

Pool room next to bar/ restruraunt, lots of outlets for charging cell phones and laptops.

Main bar/ restaurant, food was good, prices were reasonable! Lots of young backpackers, but I had no trouble talking to anyone if I smiled an said: "How's your adventure going ?"  They are on an adventure, and so am I! 

I managed to book another place for a couple of days closer into town called the "Billabong Guesthouse and hostel, again just 2  nights as they were booked past my dates.  An Aussi themed place.  Not as chill as the Monkey Republic, but they have a pool, decent bar, and a passable restaurant (mostly bar grub).  People not staying here can come to use the pool if they spend over $4. at the bar, otherwise $2.50 per person, still cheap for a decent pool!

Night view from my room.

After my 2 nights there I was having trouble finding another room online, I was sitting at the bar with my laptop and mentioned to the bartender I was not finding anything. A guy that was using the pool had come up to the bar to get a coffee had overheard me and said there might be rooms at the place he was staying "just around the corner", he gave me the name, I looked it up online, they did have a room for a reasonable price,so I booked 3 nights to help get me through the lunar new year holiday.  Then I checked the location, around the corner was 4 1/2 kilometers (2.7 miles), the guy from the pool obviously had a scooter!

Tuk-tuk from town was $4, and vice versa. The place was okay, just so far out of town.

At this point, I've decided to experience the train back to Phnom Penh, stay a couple days there,  then decide my next destination.
The train should be fun, moves at about 30mph will take 5 (+/-) hours. Only runs Sat, Sun, Monday. The Minivan experience coming here helped me decide on the train, The minivan drivers seem to make passing other vehicles their mission in life, even when it's not prudent, or safe.
I'm now back at the Billabong until Sunday and my train trip. I'll tell you more about Kampot in my next blog post.